Masterton Hospital is considering setting annual targets on the number of Maori it employs.
Te Iwi Kainga, a DHB advisory committee, has put forward a target that 5 per cent of Wairarapa DHB's 600-odd workforce is Maori by 2015.
The target is part of a Maori health plan that sets targets for
health issues that will be debated next month.
Gretchen Dean, the DHB's manager of human resources, said the plan would not mean Maori were picked over Pakeha when going for jobs.
The DHB wanted to encourage more Maori to take up health training and therefore more Maori would take up health jobs.
"If you have a broad base of Maori people training in health roles, you have more Maori applying for jobs and we could assume more Maori will be the most preferred candidates."
If a Maori candidate and a Pakeha candidate of similar abilities were being selected, the selection would come down to precise scoring - not race.
"When you go to employ somebody, we do scoring based on experience, qualifications, and other essential competencies. The best scoring candidate will get the position."
Ms Dean said employees self-identified what ethnicity they believed represented them and hypothetically anyone could tick themselves as Maori. She did not know how many Maori staff the DHB had.
Simon Everitt, general manager of strategic development and population health, said the targets relating to Maori workforce and other health issues in the Maori Health Plan were still being debated. "I would be very conscious about using any of the targets," he said.
